On 30 January 1939, Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler gave a speech in the Kroll Opera House to the Reichstag delegates, which is best known for the prediction he made that "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" would ensue if another world war were to occur.

[1] Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels helped write the speech,[2] which was delivered on the sixth anniversary of Hitler's seizure of power in 1933.

Referencing "a serious blow to the prestige of the Reich" and an "intolerable provocation", Hitler claimed that the Sudetenland had been secured by German determination and willingness to resort to war, rather than by diplomacy.

[10] He complained that there was "enough space for settlement" in the world for German Jews to go, and contended that Europe could "not become pacified before the Jewish question has been settled".

[11][12] In a long rant against Jews,[3] Hitler first mocked them, remarking at "how the whole democratic world [was] oozing with sympathy for the poor tormented Jewish People [and yet] remains hard-hearted when it comes to helping these supposedly most valuable members of the human race".

[3] Hitler claimed that the Jews were trying to incite "millions among the masses of people into a conflict that is utterly senseless for them and serves only Jewish interests".

[19] At the time of the speech, Jews and non-Jews inside and outside of Germany were paying close attention to Hitler's statements because of Kristallnacht and the possibility of war.